Harvesting corn is well known in the art. Conventionally, corn pickers remove the ears from the stalks and process those ears on through the machine, while leaving the stalks flattened against the ground and secured to their root structure. The stalks left in this condition are difficult to pick up and utilize for corn fodder, silage or biomass. To improve upon this, devices have been developed that not only remove the ears of corn from the stalks, but also cut the stalks and put them into a windrow whereupon they can be easily picked up and utilized as desired, such as by being processed through a chopping machine.
While these devices have provided some improvement in the art, there are still deficiencies preventing commercial adoption. To begin, these devices require many moving parts, are complex to manufacture, and are susceptible to wear. In addition, the devices are built into the machine and therefore are difficult to remove and repair. Finally, because these devices are built into the machines they are not adaptable for use on different corn heads for desired applications. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a device that addresses these deficiencies.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a chopping assembly for a harvesting implement that has fewer moving parts.
Another objective is to provide a dedicated chopper/transport assembly for each individual row without impacting adjacent rows.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a chopping device for a harvesting implement that is removable.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a chopping assembly for a harvesting implement that is adaptable to different sized corn headers.
These and other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims.